Animation Domination: Merry Little Batman

A young Damian Wayne (Yonas Kibreab), son of Bruce Wayne (Luke Wilson) wants to be just like his father, a superhero! The problem is, Bruce is mainly retired from being Batman.  You see, when he found out he was going to be a father, he worked extra hard to make sure Gotham City was a safe place to live.  So for the last eight years, Gotham has not needed Batman. This does not stop Damian from pleading with his father to let him “fight crime”, but Bruce is overly protective of his son and although he knows one day he will grow up to be a hero, he is trying as hard as he can to make sure Damian has a chance to be a kid as well, to have the childhood he never got.   On Christmas Eve, Damian is given his first utility belt by his father, and is very excited, until he realizes that it is full of “safe” gadgets, instead of the “cool stuff”.  That night, Batman is called out of retirement by the Justice League to investigate a weather anomaly, and while he is gone, a couple of burglars attempt to rob Wayne Manor.  Damian springs into action, causing the duo to lose all their previously stolen items, although they do steal Damian’s new belt.  This spurs Damian into a night-long quest fighting all sorts of Gotham supervillains exposing a plot to bring crime back to the city.  Can Damian get his utility belt back proving to his father that he is old enough to be a superhero? Watch and find out!

Unlike most of the DC stories coming out of Warner Bros. Animation, this movie is more comical and does not follow any of the comic book universes.  Damian is the son of Talia al Ghul and Bruce Wayne and in the comic books, was not initially raised by Bruce, but by his mother and the League of Assassins, with Bruce not even knowing of his son’s existence.  He was raised to kill at a young age, which causes issue between father and son, as Batman refuses to kill.  In this animated world, Damian has been raised by Bruce and Alfred, and although he still has a bit of the edge that the source material character has, is much more attached to his father. When the movie was in development, the idea at having the more accurate version of Damian struggling between good and evil but was eventually decided to go with a younger version of the character who wanted to be like his father. The characters are more comical than normally depicted and one of the overall lesson of the story, is that no-one, not even supervillains, should be alone over the holidays.

Also differing from previous animated Batman movies is the art direction.  Mike Roth, the film’s director, was approached by Warner Bros. Animation to work on a Batman Christmas movie with the visual aspects based on the work of Ronald Searle.  Roth, being a fan of both Batman and Searle accepted the project and got to work on bringing it to life.  The look of the characters is decidedly nonrealistic, with over exaggerated features like large protruding chins.  Alfred, wonderfully voiced by James Cromwell, was drawn to show his advanced age and a more playful side as opposed to the all too serious versions in most storylines.  The overall product produced is a more child-friendly, comedic, fun, entertaining version of the Bat Family.  The film was released on December 8^th, 2023, on Amazon Prime Video with a TV series based on the film called Bat-Family in development.